five

Chapter Five

THE GODDESS OF EARTH TREMORS

By Tim Morgan, lawyer and resident of California

The Earthquake Goddess, or God[dess] of Earth Tremors, reminds
us that parts of the world need a good shaking once in a while.
As we painfully watch the belated reconstruction of our East Bay
freeways (remembering how quickly the Santa Monica Freeway
was rebuilt after the Northridge Quake in 1991), we see signs
that the destructive forces of earth can provoke grander efforts to cope.

In a sense, the Goddess is ripping off the top of the mountain to
uncover a new state of being. Her benign countenance reminds us that to
rebuild can be a noble endeavor, and that attachment to the physical
world as it appears can be unwise. Most important, she reminds us to
respect the forces of nature and to remember that ultimately
everything in this world is temporary.
Tempus fugit, ergo carpe diem!

THE GODDESS OF HOLDING ON AND LETTING GO
ARTWORK IN RESPONSE BY GWENNETH SHEEHAN (the wild woman of Imperial Palace)

balance

Help our
memories be
kind, mature, and
understood...help us
let go of grudges and
help us stop self destructive
cycles life after life

All the stress around the dollar!

so tempted to kneel in thanks and place..

Just so ready to move into what I should be
- from what I am presently.

(words from the book at the Morgan's Goddess show at Microcosm)

THE GODDESS OF LUCIDITY

Lucid, full of light, possessor of knowledge.
This answer is not always simple or mono directional.
The light often strikes from looking in many directions.
The goddess looks within, and having seen
the harmony of the three paths,
is enlightened in her ocean of healing fertile greens.

-Morgan

THE GODDESS OF MISTAKES ENGENDERING
THE GODDESS OF INVENTION

By Robin Glassman (artist):

Surprise, aha!
Birth & growth
The mystery
of creativity.
Alas,
I find a moment
of inspiration to
ponder my heart.

Surprises emerge into the glowing abyss
as energy sends me reeling into the process.

Spinning a web.
In circular cyclical motion.

I find the answer only to be
surprised again.

THE GODDESS OF NOISE

BY MONIQUE MONET - Dancer, producer of
Monique Monet's Revolutionary Dance

Goddess of Noise spoke to me
as I meditated on her living image.
She told me that the noise is her music - -
loud and hard and fast.
And she is the personification of those sounds,
dancing the music
in sensuous shimmies bouncing,
broadcasting the sacred feminine
like a erotically ravenous orchid.
Sometimes she dances,
vulnerable,
into the flames of danger,
feeling hot, joyously absorbing the heat.
Aroused by the flames,
she flies up into the black night sky
to pose teasingly, radiantly, as the moon.

GODDESS OF PHYSICAL CONNECTIONS
from Vicki Scuri (public artist in a big way) about multi armed clay goddess

TRUTH-TRUCE-
TRUST -SRI V

THE GODDESS OF QUIET

The inner sanctuary and the outer are the same.
Spaciousness in thought, movement, and time.
She is full of grace.
Balance is not necessarily logical,
the focus is what holds things together.
Being securely within ourselves,
as we feel with our minds
the great expanses of time,
land,
space,
light,
love
and the present moment.
Quiet and expanse, like the desert,
reveal to us the immense number of choices we have
at every moment.
Do not forget this.

-Morgan

Here's a disrespectful, "angry guy" poem, maybe not the best way to treat a Goddess(!) We include it here for contrast.
FOLLOWED BY COUNTER POEM BY LOREN POLANS!

Pain … I Mean … Paean to the
Goddess of Righteous Indignation,
or Where Did They Dig This One Up? by poet Robert Dunn

Goddess, Goddess, down from the clouds,
Astronomically---yet haphazardly---endowed.
If you would ensnare our souls and hearts,
The least you could do is look the part.

Righteous indignation is a shtick
Best left to frauds in politics.
Or, perhaps it's more accurately a fever
Described by Steinbeck, Updike and Cheever.
Still, even with your aptitude,
Your beatitudes founder in the nude.
The undraped human form, at best,
Is merely a sophomoric jest.
Parading around in a hissy huff
Is a lousy way to strut one's stuff.

Incensed, you demanded we adore it.
But you really don't have the figure for it.
On top of that, chiding us on how we err
Is worse than cheating at chemin de fer.
If you wish us to be cringing Deusophobes,
Give us a break---and put on a robe.

The Eleventh Commandment's a bitter hors d'oeurve:
Says we each of us get the God we Deserve.
So take a hint from this friendly sinner:
Even the Olympians dressed for dinner.

If all this strikes you as addle-pated,
It's because you're every woman I've ever dated.
Now, I'm paying you back and your indignant---
Perhaps considering a mot juste (malignant)?
Well, make it good, before I play pigeon
By succumbing to some competing religion.

FIRST-DRAFT COUNTER POEM

by Loren Polans

Most poets who inflicted forced rhyme upon us
Had the good taste to die out many decades ago;
along with Fear of Nudity,
and "whites only" drinking fountains.
There are still those who need
Literal Art;
art that mimics the mundane,
a Polaroid of life.
I prefer the fire of imagination
Art that burns.
Humans can imagine the Infinite;
a dog can only imagine a bone...
and would probably continue
to date a picture of it.

On to the next chapter (6